Latin American Government's Recent Sentiment Towards Junk Food

And Mexico is implementing a tax on pet food, citing that owning a dog or cat is a "luxury" and thus should be taxed more.

My personal belief is that govts that do these types of things (special taxes on certain things they supposedly discourage) knowing that behavior will not change that much. Why would you "tax the hell out of" Mary Jane, as people want to do here, if you thought it would heavily discourage people from buying? The demands are so inelastic that no one cares about paying the tax. You prey on people's consumption habits so the govt can take more of your money for God knows what project.

Do I think this will dramatically change behavior? Probably not. Especially for brands that were already well established there. People will just accept the tax, and the govt will have more money. Which is exactly what their ultimate purpose was.

These are countries where entire cities and states are controlled by drug cartels. Don't they have bigger problems to deal with? I'm all for trying to focus on health, despite what the libertarian kooks say, but doesn't this seem like a misprioritization?